If you were ever a member of the 5CCG radar maintenance shop, please send me
an e-mail and let me know the dates you were there. I would like to use this space as
a group gathering for all the graying heroes of yore. Thanks!

Col. John Kopsick, Jr., was the 5CCG commander from Mar 78 - May 81. His
photo looks like the hero star of a WWII movie.

Williams AFB in AZ, in 1980s. Soto Cano AB, Honduras for a 4 month TDY
to give the Mob some relief maintaining the MPN-14. TDY to Panama from Honduras. Retired from USAF in
MAR 94 after over 21 years. Worked as a cable installer, then in a motorcycle shop for a few years.
Now permanently retired in CA - lovin' every minute of it.

Currently contractor for U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, HI, working on the AN\FYK-17B FACSFAC Air Control
Tracking System

Carol Brown

Tim Brown

Mike Broxterman

FAA

Greg Bucchieri

MPN-13, MPN-14 and a one of a kind MPN-17 developed for use in Vietnam
at Phan Rang AB. The
MPN-17 had 2 Search frequencies at different phases so as to eliminate excess ground clutter. Also
Laughlin AFB, TX and
Aviano AB, Italy. 1966-1970
(see photos)

3CCG, Tinker AFB, OK, Jun 1973 - Apr 1979. "I thought I must be in for a good deal. Boy
was I wrong." MPN-13, MPN-14, TPN-19 (qty. 10) and all the equipment that went along with them. Went
to TPN-19 school and factory in 1975. "What a mess. There are some war stories about them."

Shemya AS, Apr 1979 - Apr 1980, MPN-13 w/o a 301 key system, T3 Trainer. There was all kinds
of room in that power trailer. Our UPX-6 was not restricted to 60 miles.

Air Traffic Controller (AFSC 27250), 4 years all
as radar controller. 3 years at Shaw AFB, MPN-13 for 1 year at
Udorn Royal
Thai Air Force Base. 26 years at FAA as controller, at Huntsville, AL and Louisville, KY.

1978 through 1982 marked my years spent in the U.S. Air Force as an Air Traffic Control Radar Technician,
AFSC 303x1. After nine months in technical school at Keesler AFB, MS, I moved on to my permanent duty
station at Robins AFB, Georgia.

There, I was part of the 5th Combat
Communication Group (5CCG), aka 5th MOB (MOB = mobile). Most of my early knowledge of electronics was
learned as a result of the experience gained there. To be truthful, I was not overly thrilled with being
part of a mobile communication group, because my goal was to work on an engineering degree, and the
propensity for deployment was great enough to limit me to a total of about three semesters of college
classes. After many years of part-time and full-time coursework after the Air Force duty, I finally
completed my BSEE at the University of Vermont, of all places.

The
AN/MPN-14 was a mobile radar system that consisted
primarily of an Equipment Trailer (all of the radar electronics), a Maintenance Trailer (workbench,
AC/Heat, UHF/VHF radios), and a big RAPCON Trailer (ASR and PAR displays and controls). A 60-mile Airport
Surveillance Radar (ASR) and a 10-mile Precision Approach Radar (PAR) provided the primary radar, and
a 200-mile Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system provided the synthetic (secondary) radar. This
IFF system contained a 1 kbyte magnetic core memory with the four read, write, sense and strobe lines
threaded by Pygmies.

These pictures
were dug out of a photo shoebox and posted for your viewing pleasure. A search on Google for the MPN-14
radar turned up no pictures at all, so maybe this is now the only one on the Internet.

Due to the huge amount of interest in the 5CCG (5th MOB) both my 5th members and by members from
other Mobs, the scope of this page has been expanded to include all the MOBs, the first through the
5th. If you or someone you know was a member, please contact me with your service information and I
will include it here. Photos are welcome; I can scan originals or
negatives
and return them to you if you do not have digital versions.

Here is a friendly letter I received from the VA. The GI Bill had been suspended
during my enlistment era, so I had to pay into the college fund. Turns out, the VA had it wrong, and
I did not owe the $15.93.

ITT/Gilfillan (then Exelis and now Harris) has "resurrected" the MPN-14. It appears from
their brochure that they have gutted the shell and re-fitted it with modern electronics
and software - very nice!. I just hope they have significantly improved the air conditioning system
as well; that old design used to fail continuously. Thanks to Angelo V for
the info.

Here is an identification plate form an AN/MPN-14 radar trailer. It comes from the
1st MOB website

USAF
radar tech Elbert Cook has completed his scale model of the
MPN-13 GCA(Ground Control Approach) mobile radar system that he worked on. It has
an incredible amount of detail, including the ASR (airport surveillance radar)
and PAR (precision approach radar) antennas, the VHF and UHF radio antennas,
navigation hazard light, and even the gin poles that stabilize the trailers against wind forces. Elbert's
modeling skills are impressive indeed! Hopefully, this model will someday end up in a USAF museum -
maybe at Wright-Patterson AFB.

Gary Thomas <service>
- I was inducted in the Air Force March 1968, after Lackland (now merged with Randolph AFB into Joint Base San Antonio) I was sent to Keesler for for 303x1 training and then assigned
to the 1926 Comms Sq. at Robins in Dec 1969 and stayed there for the rest of my term of service
1971. We had a FPN/16 on a turntable and worked out the FAA Rapcon bldg. The TSgt. was Victor Sharp,
SSgt. Calvin Oberg, Sgt. Ronald Vaughn. Soon we were joined by Nathan Lemmon, and Larry Gulley. Not
long after I arrived Gilfillan came and did a complete rebuild of the unit including turntable.
We then had a very light work load for the remainder of my time there, due to all new equipment.

Rich France <service>- Radar unit#5 was assigned to me.. gulp!... either you
guys could train on it or I caught Hell!. FPN-47 (there were two units in the same room that fed one
antennae out by the trailers. I was one of the few that trained on the
BRITE system – that came
to Keesler before ANY other site in the world (including the Pentagon) – we trained oh so many officers
for a year or so then enlisted men – with two maintenance staff on 24 hour stand-by- when anything was
ordered for that system, it was flown directly to Keesler and delivered to me by the pilot! I welcome
a contact from other radar guys from the 1960s/1970s.

Rick Tenney - The Commander
was Col. Madera, and the Radar shop NCOIC was MSGT Richard Jolley. Other RADAR Maint personnel I worked
with were Larry Gulley, John Peysur, Norman Cole, Wayne Sutton, and Bruce Blackburn. I found Bruce Blackburns'
listing on this web page so most of the data is the same. I was sent to King Salmon Alaska in 1972.
It's good to hear about long lost buddies.

Thanks to Don Hicks and other former Radar Techs for many of these names. The list originally reported
only 5CCG Radar Shop members, but has been expanded to include any AFSC 303x1 Radar Techs who care to
send in their information for a listing. Send me an e-mail to have your name removed, or to add others
to the ever-growing list.

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB.
Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference
material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The Internet
was still largely an unknown entity at the time and not much was available in the form of
WYSIWYG ...

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